In a wide ranging interview with Melbourne radio host Neil Mitchell, Turnbull was asked about his position on a partial burka ban, given the new position of Merkel -- who is under intense political pressure over her acceptance of almost a million Middle East refugees.

The Prime Minister's response was swift: "You occasionally hear calls for that, but that's not something we would support or propose".

"Obviously, what you are seeing in Europe is the consequences of uncontrolled irregular migration," he told 3AW. "Europeans regrettably lost control of their borders."

"When I was in U.N. recently talking to a lot of European leaders they all talked about the way this large scale irregular migration posed a real threat to their societies to the stability of their democracies.

"That is why it is vital for us to maintain the security and integrity of our borders."

The Prime Minister also used the Neil Mitchell interview to defend his Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg over the self-created controversy over the government's climate policies and this week's mere sniff of the Coalition bogeyman, "the carbon tax".

An embarrassing U-turn has been underway since Frydenberg stated an Abbott-era government review of climate policies would "consider" an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity generation industry.

It's not a carbon tax or government policy, but it is a price on carbon within an industry -- based on emissions of an industry during a year divided by the industry's total production of electricity during the year -- to help Australia meet its climate targets.